Grace Natalie"s Indonesian Solidarity Party Getting Ready for 2019 Elections | GIV

Grace Natalie.(Photo source: Twitter)

In-depth

Jakarta, GIVnews.com – She is young and beautiful. Her political party, Partai Solidaritas Indonesia (PSI), or the Indonesian Solidarity Party, was established only in March this year as an “open, pluralist and nationalist” organization. Yet, about a week ago, 32-year old Grace Natalie, former journalist and television presenter, declared that PSI is ready to contest in the 2019 general election.

Claiming to be a party by young people and for the young people, the PSI will early this month (June 2015) formally invite Indonesian citizens to register themselves online with the party if they wish to become its cadres or supporters. Registration is made through its website, intro.psi.or.id.

Obviously, age matters to the PSI. To be included in its boards of management at the national level down to the sub-district level are only people of 45 years old maximum. Another requirement is that they have never served as officials at any other political parties. All this aims to enable the PSI to garner support from young voters, the largest portion of Indonesia’s demographics.

Ideally, the PSI’s boards comprise of people between 21 and 30 years old, Grace said in media interviews.

These days, Grace and he party colleagues are quite busy with the process of registering the PSI with the Minister of Law and Human Rights. The Ministry will verify the party before giving it a formal status as a political party as stipulated by existing laws, Grace said in a discussion forum in Central Jakarta on Saturday (23/5) as reported by Detik.com.

In order for a political party to be recognized by the state, it must fulfill a number of requirements, among others:

• It is formed by at least 30 Indonesian citizens who are at least 21 years old or who are already married


• At least 50 Indonesian citizens jointly register the political party with the Ministry of Law and human Rights


• It has chapters and management boards in all provinces, and at least in 75 percent of all the regencies/cities in each province. Also the party’s chapters are formed in at least 50 percent of all the sub-districts in each of the regencies/cities. Currently, Indonesia has 34 provinces and 412 regencies/cities, according to merahputih.com.

Grace, who is an Indonesian of a Chinese-descent and Christian, said that the PSI had established its chapters in all the 34 provinces and in almost all of the 412 regencies/cities. Currently, it has around 1,000 cadres at the provincial and regency/city levels, Grace said. She admitted, however, that they had made little progress in establishing PSI branch offices at the sub-district levels.

On why Grace, an accounting graduate, has a strong ambition to form the PSI, here is the answer:

Grace wishes to help bring changes into the country’s political life. So far, she argues, Indonesia’s political parties have been dominated by old elites and have been manipulated to serve their own interests. Party elites have given too less attention to the welfare of the whole people while making too little efforts to promote national unity and integration.

As a journalist Grace had negative experiences with political parties. She found it very difficult for young, brilliant people to enter politics simply because they had to pay political parties staggering amounts of money in order for them to be exposed and promoted by these organizations. Accordingly, With the PSI, Grace argued, there will not be money politics because what counts is the politicians’ quality. However, Grace declined to say whether there are special donors behind the PSI.

Grace and her colleagues felt a big push when young people were elected for top posts. They included President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, Jakarta Governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama and Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil.

With the PSI, Grace said it is simply trying to achieve something good for the future of the nation. “If there is a price to pay for it, then so it be,” said the mother of a one-year old child in an interview with The Jakarta Post. Grace said she gets full support from her husband, Kevin Osmond.

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